The new line-up features five women

including Yoko Kamikawa as foreign minister

who's the first women to hold the post in 20 years

However, Japan still falls short on female representation

when compared to other G7 nations

[Koichi Nakano, Professor of Political Science, Sophia University]

"With regards to the cabinet ministers it's very simple. You have to simply have a wider pool of eligible and qualified women and by only having 10 percent of the lawmakers from the female sex, obviously it's not enough. And so you do need to expand the pool so that the priority of course is to get more women to join politics from

the very start."

PM Fumio Kishida wants to increase the number of female lawmakers to 30% over the next decade

Source: World Economic Forum

In 2023, Japan was rated 125th among 143 countries for gender parity

"Other countries have moved ahead much more substantially while Japan remained very stagnant and that's why it's lagging behind today. And the difference is that many other countries have adopted a quota system in one (way) or another. Many people in Japan think of a quota system as unfair and biased and giving extraordinary privilege to women, no but it's the other way around. The existing system gives too much privilege to men and particularly men from political dynasties."